Blog: Agile & Business

What to do first?

December 5, 2008

I just got an email from someone who recently went to one of our Scrum courses. (Note: This is a long but, I think, interesting post. Bear with it if you can.) QUESTION: Hi, Let’s say one is going to work as a team lead for a software project in an organization that currently does […]

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The Nokia Test (6): Estimates created by the team

November 20, 2008

Another installment on the Nokia Test. Before we begin, a quick mention that Jeff Sutherland has done an improved scoring on the Nokia Test. See here. So, the next item on the test says: “The Product Backlog has estimates created by the team.” Why is this important and what does it mean? Meaning first: So, […]

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Agile Portfolio Management — 2

November 20, 2008

OK, so we got started earlier. This continues an earlier post. What next? Ummm. One of the goals of Agile Portfolio Management is making sure the most important things are done first. And that all of us are only working on the highest priority things. And Agile Portfolio Management should try to achieve that goal […]

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Agile Portfolio Management – 1

November 19, 2008

A few people have been asking about “Agile Portfolio Management,” or at least, “How do we manage this stuff?” What they mean is what I call Agile Portfolio Management. Agile Portfolio Management is of course distinct from Scrum, but for simplicity, I have assumed a Scrum context. First, Scrum is relatively silent on this subject, […]

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Reading List CSM Sutherland/Little course

November 17, 2008

We recently led a course in Atlanta, Georgia. Suggested reading included the following: Note: I believe the Amazon images do not show up well if you use an ad blocker or https. ______________________ “The New New Product Development Game” by Takeuchi and Nonaka “The Contradictions That Drive Toyota’s Success” by Takeuchi “The Concept of ‘Ba’” […]

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Scrum Certification Test

November 10, 2008

The Scrum Alliance has recently announced a Scrum Certification Test (a.k.a. CSM Test). Two cheers. This is a minor good thing. It is an opportunity to say what makes someone good at Scrum. Hint: High scores on the Scrum Test probably have very little to do with it. First, Scrum is a team sport, so […]

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Small teams

October 16, 2008

I was just looking at “The Discipline of Teams” by Katzenbach and Smith. These are the same gentlemen who wrote “The Wisdom of Teams.” First, my strong bias (which I find is reinforced in many places, including this book) is that all “real work” these days takes place in teams. (Yes, I need to add […]

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All business is personal

September 14, 2008

We are in the political season, sometimes called the silly season. I will avoid discussions of politics, but I mentioned politics to introduce a well-worn phrase: “All politics are local.” Whether that is true or not, it led me to the observation that “all business is personal.” That phrase and a note on this blog […]

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A personal note

September 11, 2008

In 2001 I was living in N.C. working as a consultant in NYC. I remember early on a Tuesday morning getting on a plane in Greensboro and flying to LaGuardia. I stopped to get some beanie babies for my kids, and took a taxi to the World Trade Center at about 8:25 a.m. It was […]

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Hyperproductive Distributed Scrum

September 7, 2008

Back on July 21, 2008, Jeff Sutherland gave a talk on Hyperproductive Distributed Scrum at the Googleplex in NYC. Here is the video.

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